A TIMELY CHANCELLOR

See Also: PALACES, DISAPPEARED & FORMER The Savoy Palace, The Duchy of Lancaster; WEST GERMANY's MIDWIFE; WHITEHALL Ministers, George Brown

Harold Lever served as a Labour M.P. from 1945 to 1979. He voted for Harold Wilson in the 1963 leadership contest. In large part, he did so because he believed that George Brown should not be allowed to become the party's leader. Subsequently, he became Wilson's chief fixer.

Financially, Lever was sophisticated. In 1967 he was appointed to be the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Two years later he entered the Cabinet as Paymaster-General. The office came with a range of economic responsibilities. It was attached to Tony Benn's Ministry of Technology. Upon one occasion the Secretary of State invited his colleague to a sandwich lunch in his office. Lever turned up to the meal with a Fortnum & Mason hamper.

In 1973 Lever suffered a stroke. This probably accounted for his being given the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Labour ministry that was formed the following year. The post was conferred upon him without any accompanying departmental duties. He was charged with taking a broad view of economic and industrial policy.

Just prior to the October 1974 general election, the building societies informed the government of their intention of raising the mortgage interest rate. Lever believed that the analysis that had led the societies to seek to do so had been faulty. The minister persuaded them to hold the rate in return for a short-advance of £100m at 0.5% below the market rate. This helped Labour to win the election. Subsequent economic events proved that his assessment had been right and that that of the societies had been wrong.

Lever was immensely wealthy as a result of his mysterious business activities. When he was serving as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he was inclined to conduct government business from his opulent 22-room Eaton Square apartment rather than the office in No. 10 Downing Street that Wilson had assigned to him.

His lordship's third wife was a very beautiful Lebanese banking heiress. A colleague once accused him of having married her because she was worth £2m. The politician replied that he would have still been prepared to wed her had she been worth only £1m.

Location: 86 Eaton Square, SW1W 9AG (blue, purple)

The Ministry of Technology, Millbank Tower, 21-41 Millbank, SW1P 4QP (orange, red)

David Backhouse 2024